In a reaction from legal practitioners, it is becoming clear that the Code of Conduct Tribunal has no jurisdiction to try the Chief Justice of the Federation. In a post published by a lawyer, the reason for this was explained.

The post reads: “Serving judges can’t be tried by cct by virtue of the judgment of the court of appeal in respect of the case of Justice Hyeladzira Nganjiwa, the chief justice of Nigeria and in fact, any serving judicial officer judge, cannot be tried by the code of conduct tribunal or even court, until the national judicial council, NJC would have dealth with the matter.

Though, the matter is still on appeal at the supreme court, the judgment still stands. As a matter of fact, based on that judgment, the code of conduct tribunal had to discontinue the trial of Supreme Court Justice, Sylvester Ngwuta who was facing trial on alleged false declaration of assets.

Similarly, the Federal High Court had struck out money laundering charges against the Supreme Court Justice based on this judgment, same thing in respect of Justice Ajumogobia.”